ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello is featured in a new interview with MetalTitans.com. An excerpt is available below:

MT: I spoke with Rob (Caggiano) on a couple of occasions and the two times I spoke to the guy he seemed genuinely stoked about being in Anthrax, the Worship Music album and touring. Then a few months ago he up and quit the band. There was a recent quote from Rob where he said something to the affect that he wasn’t all that into the music? He certainly fooled me. I saw a couple Anthrax shows on this tour and he looked ‘into’ it.

Frank: "I love Rob—I’m at a point in my life where I just want people to be happy. If you’re not happy somewhere then move on. I think people would assume that there would be some animosity but there isn’t. I don’t feel that way. I feel very fortunate that we have Jon Donais from Shadows Fall stepping in on guitar. It’s all good—I love Rob we’re still friends. If you’re not happy somewhere then move on. I thought he had left to do more production but then he joined VOLBEAT. That’s a great band. We’re all good like I said earlier I just want people to be happy."

MT: From an outsider’s perspective it didn’t appear like you guys hit the panic button when Rob decided to leave the band. If I recall the dates were announced and the tour was booked. Did you guys freak?

Frank: "Not at all. We had Jon available and we know him well---it was a no brainer. At this point in our career we don’t panic because we’ve been around the block a few times. We know things will be fine because we’ve been there before. I guess it’s our New York mentality. Panic? It’s not even in our vocabulary."

MT: Rob was with you guys for over a decade. Have you thought at all about a replacement at this point?

Frank: "Yeah he was in the band for 11-12 years. No not at this point—Jon’s playing with us and we’ll see how this goes. I don’t think anyone’s even thinking about that right now. We’re having a great fucking time man. We’re getting well with Jon he’s a fantastic guitar player and we’ll just see how it goes when it comes to writing for the next record. We’ll approach the next record who we’ve done records in the past. Charlie, Scott and I will head into our rehearsal space and bang out some song ideas—that’s how it starts."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Anthrax recently entered the Billboard 200 chart at #52 with their new Anthems EP, selling approximately 8,500 copies in the US in it's first week of release.

Anthrax have released the special edition of the band's last album, Worship Music. The special edition contains both the regular album as well as the brand new Anthems EP, featuring cover versions of songs originally performed by RUSH, AC/DC, BOSTON, JOURNEY, CHEAP TRICK and THIN LIZZY.

Anthems is released separately on CD and vinyl and is exclusively available at the Nuclear Blast Mailorder, here. On iTunes, get Worship Music Special Edition here, and Anthems EP here.

Anthems EP tracklisting:

'Anthem' (RUSH)

'TNT' (AC/DC)

'Smokin'' (BOSTON)

'Keep On Runnin'' (JOURNEY)

'Big Eyes' (CHEAP TRICK)

'Jailbreak' (THIN LIZZY)

'Crawl' (Album version)

'Crawl' (Remix)

A 3.5 minute video including snippets of every song and comments by the band's members can be found below:

On March 22nd in Anaheim, CA, Anthrax launched The Metal Alliance Tour, on which they are performing their fan favorite 1987 classic, Among The Living, in its entirety. A tour kick-off video can now be seen below:

The Metal Alliance Tour also features EXODUS, HIGH ON FIRE, MUNICIPAL WASTE, HOLY GRAIL and SHADOWS FALL on select dates.

Tour dates:

April

5 - House of Blues - Chicago, IL
6 - The Fillmore Detroit - Detroit, MI
7 - Bogarts - Cincinnati, OH
9 - House of Blues - Dallas, TX
10 - House of Blues - Houston, TX
12 - House of Blues - Lake Buena Vista, FL
13 - Tremont Music Hall - Charlotte, NC
14 - The Fillmore - Silver Spring, MD
16 - House of Blues - Cleveland, OH
18 - Theatre of the Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA
20 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY
21 - Irving Plaza - New York, NY

For more details visit Metalalliancetour.com.